While in Hanoi, I have visited the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, the Army Museum, The Fine Arts Museum, The Temple of Literature and the Hoa Lo Prison a.k.a The Hanoi Hilton.

Before I went to the Army museum, a number of people mentioned that they were interested in what I, as an American, had to say about it because it is full of propaganda.

I have to say that while I did see the propoganda, what struck me most was the the museum was not very informative at all. The way it was set up made it difficult to follow the chronology and most of the exhibits were things like, the scarf of such and such war hero or a photo of our accomplished soldiers with Uncle Ho.

On the propoganda side, when I reached the "American War" section the Viet Minh were referred to as the puppet government and America was always the enemy. There were displays of the shirt of "3 year old so and so who was killed by the enemy in his village of X" In the Dien Bien Phu section there was a helmet with bullet holes in it. Instead of saying "helmet of French soldier", it said, "Steel helmet that is evidence of the failure of the French."

What was most interesting about the museum were the bomb casings and war plane wreckage and missle launcher they had outside. I'd never seen the weapons of war and they were quite impressive even in their shrapnal state.

The Hoa Lo Prison was actually built by the French and a majority of it focused on Vietnamese suffering under the French. There was a section on American prisoners of war and what great treatment they received. There were pictures of some of the prisons more famous prisoners including Senator John McCain who was captive there for six years.

I thought it was a bit ironic that they had a picture of a man who can not lift his arms above his head because of the treatment he received in the prison next to information about how well prisoners were treated. But I guess, most people don't know about John McCain, especially the Vietnamese. It is too bad we all can't just be honest about the horrors of war.

I saw a school group at the Army museum. It made me sad these kids would only see one nationalistic point of view. Every government employs propaganda and promotes nationalism. Even our government lies to us from time to time. But at least we have the freedom to investigate for ourselves and voice our disent. I've always know that freedom of speech is very important but my visit to these museums was evidence of why. These two museums were really the first place that I have really noticed that I was in a communist country.

It is too bad Ho Chi Minh died before the war ended because I really don't think things turned out as he had intended.